Leeds United may now be regretting just how quiet their January transfer window was.
The only real activity that occurred that month was at right-back, with Connor Roberts’ loan arrival from Burnley the sole signing Leeds made.
The 28-year-old was brought in as a result of the early termination of Djed Spence’s loan from Tottenham, who is now showing how good he is at Genoa. Leeds also lost Luke Ayling to Middlesbrough on loan.
Predominantly due to his character in the dressing room, Roberts has proven to be a decent signing for Leeds but has struggled with a couple of injury issues in recent weeks.
He also made a couple of telling contributions in matches against Leicester City and Huddersfield Town, but in hindsight, he should not have been the only addition.
Leeds’ January window track record makes for grim reading
It has been a long time since Leeds made good use of the January window. Last season, Max Wober, Georginio Rutter and Weston McKennie were brought in and aside from some decent displays early on from the former, not one of those signings made enough impact to keep the club up.
The year prior, Leeds spent an entire month blindly chasing a deal for Brenden Aaronson. It never happened, no one else was targeted, and the Whites were very lucky to stay up.
Even in the promotion campaign January was a nightmare. Jean-Kevin Augustin was brought in as a replacement for Eddie Nketiah, and he may well be the disastrous signing in the history of football based on how much it has ended up costing Leeds, and how little he played.
Leeds may be regretting lack of January activity
Though Roberts was the only player brought in, right-back certainly wasn’t the only position Leeds looked at strengthening.
A creative right-sided attacker was looked at, with Manuel Benson and David Brooks both targets. Though another option would certainly have been useful, it was not the biggest failure that month.
Leeds spent the majority of deadline day trying and failing to sign a number of centre-back targets. Harry Souttar, Ben Godfrey and Joe Worrall are just three that were looked at.
Clearly at that time, Leeds knew someone needed to come in. Pascal Struijk had missed around a month of action by that point but hasn’t been able to get himself back fit and won’t play again this season.
Ethan Ampadu had covered Struijk brilliantly alongside Joe Rodon between the turn of the New Year and March international break, but that partnership has not looked anywhere near as strong recently, conceding nine goals in their last three.
Leeds’ midfield has also been way off it, yet Daniel Farke’s clear lack of trust in Liam Cooper and Charlie Cresswell has meant Ampadu has had to stay in the back four, preventing him from moving into his best position.
Had another centre-back come in, that would’ve given Farke the armoury he needed to bring them in alongside Rodon, and therefore move Ampadu into midfield.
At the time, Leeds’ failure to sign a centre-back did not seem to be much of a big deal, but it has definitely developed into one.